ROH Honorable Mention: ROH TV Review (05/06/2017)

The show this week was the third episode taped in Baltimore, Maryland. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana were on commentary to start the show.

First Match: ROH World Tag Team Championship MatchThe Young Bucks (c) vs. The SquadThe Squad quickly attacked the Bucks as the bell rang, but quickly had the tables turned on them, receiving two superkicks before they fell victim to an early Rise of the Terminators, ending with a pair of simultaneous tope suicidas. Back inside the ring the Squad gained control and worked Matt over through the break. Matt eventually reversed a gut check and tagged out, allowing a fresh Nick to take Mondo and Doane out himself. Nick missed a swanton and the partners on both sides switched, with the Bucks gaining the advantage before hitting a 5 Star Meltzer Driver on Mondo for the pinfall victory. The match was a basic tag team match, but like I’ve spoken about before with the ROH TV title, having a team outside of the division challenge for the titles makes the outcome a foregone conclusion.

Winners: The Young Bucks

A short Matt Taven promo aired during which he compared himself to a meteor taking out the dinosaurs like Christopher Daniels. This was effective and ROH has used short clips like this effectively to build towards the title match in Dearborn during the War of the Worlds tour.

Next up were the Briscoes, cutting a promo about taking on the Rebellion for the 6-man tag titles next week. It’s been said before, but Mark and Jay are really at the top of their game with promos before matches.

Second Match: Punishment Martinez vs. The Beer City BruiserAs Martinez made his way to the ring Cabana commented that he doesn’t like hearing the name Damien and said that he would speak to Bobby Cruz about just sticking to Punishment Martinez. The ad libs didn’t stop there, as Cabana then commented that BCB has a face that even his mother doesn’t love. Young joined commentary and the back and forth with Cabana was priceless, as Cabana asked how many beers BCB has before a match. In case you’re wondering, the number is apparently upwards of 50. Martinez took it to BCB right away but as the commercial break neared, Bruiser hit a cannonball to the outside. The two have squared off before, but each time really shows the chemistry between the two. Martinez won after he was able to hoist BCB up in the South of Heaven chokebomb for a pinfall victory. As good as this was, Martinez will need to square off against other large men to continue his dominant streak.

Winner: Punishment Martinez

A very shorty Marty Scurll promo aired about his next title defense against Matt Sydal and how he would be relinquishing the title. As always, Scurll’s promos are excellent, especially considering he often is not in a prolonged promo with his opponents.

Main Event: Adam Cole & Cody vs. Dalton Castle & Christopher DanielsJay Lethal joined Cabana and Riccaboni on commentary before the start of the match. Cody demanded that the Boys be sent to the back as the match was not scheduled as an 8-man, but he did not get his wish. Nevertheless, Cody started off against Castle, who Cabana commented was the weakest wrestler in the match, continuing the story that he has issues with Castle. There seemed to be dissension between the Bullet Club members during the match and eventually Cole up and left Cody alone. Just as Daniels was setting Cody up for Angels Wings, Cole ran back down to ringside and kicked Daniels in the back of the head before hitting the Last Shot. Cole then told Cody to finish Daniels, which he did with a Cross Rhodes before scoring the win via pinfall. The Bucks came out and the Bullet Club celebrated together.

Winners: Adam Cole & Cody

Lethal, still hot over Cody being added to the title match Lethal earned left commentary and made his way to the ring to ask Daniels why Cody is receiving a shot as well. Lethal helped Daniels to his feet before questioning him and the two got into a heated discussion, unaware of Cody sliding back into the ring. Despite being blindsided, Lethal recovered quickly and hit a Lethal Injection on both Daniels and Cody

Final Reaction: C+

I’m a little conflicted here, as the main event and the fallout from the match was well done to build to the expected triple threat between Lethal/Daniels/Cody at the War of the Worlds NYC PPV. The match felt a little flat overall. The Squad challenging the Bucks was executed well, but just feels like a short filler as the company tries to decide how to develop other challengers for the tag titles. Martinez and BCB work well together, but we’ve also seen the same match before and some sort of tension between the two, aside from both being bigger competitors would go a long way for both men. After a string of stronger episodes, this one just felt a bit more like the machine rolling along to the PPV with nothing of real import occurring here.

Thanks for stopping by again this week and look for more Ring of Honor coverage the same time next week. Until then, please go over to Running Wild Podcast and take a listen to a show that covers oodles of wrestling news and ridiculous conversations. You can find us on iTunes, Stitcher, Soundcloud and Google Play store.

Rich is a high school teacher from Brooklyn, New York and Associate Editor at Last Word on Pro Wrestling. When he's not working, he's a rabid wrestling fan, a Red Bull Season ticket holder and a generally long-suffering Mets, Jets and Devils fan. Father and Husband. He started watching wrestling when he was 7 in 1991. Due to now defunct local video rental stores, the exposure to anything made by Colosseum home video and other wrestling content providers was extensive. He also regularly attends local NYC shows, both small and large and watches as much wrestling as possible.